Michigan Tech News

Students, Teachers Gather at Tech to Learn about Lake Superior

More than 200 teachers and students from Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ontario are coming to Michigan Technological University this week for the 10th Biennial Lake Superior Youth Symposium. Students and teachers from 26 schools in three Great Lakes states and Canada will spend four days at the symposium, Thursday to Sunday, May 16-19.

The 7th through 12th grade students and their teachers will participate in dozens of hands-on activities and field trips such as Exploring the Great Lakes with Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles; Use of Mobile Technology to Collect Environmental Data; Sustainable Design & Low Impact Development; Community Support of Agriculture; Shipping on the Great Lakes, Sustainable Transportation; and scientific excursions aboard the Agassiz research vessel,

The symposium’s 50 presenters will cover Great Lakes history and economic impacts, conservation issues, Lake Superior geology, water quality of the Great Lakes, student stewardship initiatives and the arts—including botanical drawing, poetry, photography and more. Presenters include Michigan Tech faculty and graduate students; biologists, foresters and geologists; community activists, artists, writers, educators and model student groups. Superior AmeriCorps is providing a dozen members to assist throughout the symposium.

The symposium is designed to teach students and teachers about Lake Superior and the Great Lakes watersheds through hands-on activities and to prepare them to bring their experiences back to their classrooms and communities.

The Lake Superior Youth Symposium is sponsored by Michigan Tech’s School of Forest Resources & Environmental Science and Tech’s Great Lakes Research Center, the Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative and the Western UP Center for Science, Math and Environmental Education. Funding comes from NOAA, Earth Force, the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative, the Michigan Space Grant Consortium, the Keweenaw Community Foundation, Upper Peninsula Environmental Council, Superior Watershed Partnership, Friends of the Land of Keweenaw, Copper Country Trout Unlimited, Copper Country Audubon Club and Dale Nichols.

Michigan Technological University (www.mtu.edu) is a leading public research university developing new technologies and preparing students to create the future for a prosperous and sustainable world. Michigan Tech offers more than 130 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in engineering; forest resources; computing; technology; business; economics; natural, physical and environmental sciences; arts; humanities; and social sciences.

Original URL: http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2013/may/students-teachers-gather-tech-learn-lake-superior.html